Staffing agencies slam govt’s plans to use agency staff as strikebreakers
Staffing agencies have hit out at the government’s plans to lift a ban on using agency staff as strike breakers.
In a letter to the government seen by City PM, a group of the world’s biggest staffing agencies slammed the plans, put forward by business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, to overturn laws banning agency staff from filling in for striking workers.
In the letter to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), eleven major staffing companies warned the plans could bring the agency industry into “disrepute,” as they said any decision to lift the ban would be “unhelpful”.
The firms – which include Randstad, Adecco, and ManpowerGroup – said the plans risk damaging the staffing sector’s reputation in an age of “social media,” as they said the proposals threaten to inflame strikes instead of “ending them”.
The staffing companies said that even if individual businesses choose not to supply strikebreaking staff, the entire £40bn per annum sector will be “held responsible” for sending agency staff across picket lines.
The agencies said it had hoped to have a consultation with the government after news of the government’s plans broke last week. The companies have not yet heard back from the government, City PM understands.
The letter comes after the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) last week called for a consultation with the government before it lifts the agency workers legislation.
The APSCo’s director of public policy, Tania Bowers, said its members had been “surprised by the unexpected move” as the trade body said it is “sceptical about the impact of removing the prohibition on agency workers replacing strikers”.
A spokesperson for the UK’s BEIS said: “The Business Secretary makes no apology for taking action so that essential services, such as train lines, are run as effectively as possible, ensuring the British public don’t have to pay the price for disproportionate strike action.
“Allowing businesses to supply skilled agency workers to plug staffing gaps does not mandate employment businesses to do this, rather this legislation gives employers more freedom to find trained staff in the face of strike action if they choose to.”
Thompsons Solicitors’ head of trade union law, Richard Arthur, said: “These plans are yet another example of the government trying to look tough without any real substance behind what it is proposing.”
“Workers don’t want this, trade unions don’t want this, and even the recruitment agencies don’t want this. The government needs to see sense and scrap a plan that isn’t going to work. Yet again it is chasing a cheap headline that will only waste time and money.”